The Observer, October 13, 2006
Volume XXXIX, Issue 7
USG Briefs
No USG General Assembly meeting was held this week. Instead, an open forum was held at the Wade Fireside this past Tuesday discussing first-years' opinions on the SAGES program.
The open forum was held as part of a USG initiative to be more open and accessible to the student body. USG Vice President of Public Relations Adam Rupe explained the reason USG was hosting the event.
"We made a commitment last year to do two of these each semester. The next one will be on student life. This one we wanted to do student affairs and talk to first-year students," said Rupe. "It gives us more ideas of what we should be doing, because what we do is for the students."
The forum was moderated by USG members Stephanie Crawley and Ali Hasanali. Dean of First Year Students Julie Amon and SAGES Director Peter Whiting were also in attendance. They answered questions presented by students in attendance concerning the program.
Among the first speakers was USG VP of Student Life, Myles Nickolich, a sophomore. Nickolich explained a concern of his regarding inequity of grading and course content across different sections of the same class. He was concerned that some sections of the SAGES courses had different work loads and different grading standards than others.
Whiting addressed this concern by stating that there are and have been thorough guidelines regarding the content and grading of SAGES courses.
"The same course taught by different faculty, or sometimes the same faculty member year-to-year, can differ a little bit. Sometimes there can be the perception that there are vast differences in the ease of a course and what's being covered," said Whiting. "First seminar has [a] certain set of common expectations; the amount of writing, the mode of interaction, and the various elements of it are relatively standardized."
Other comments and concerns included general praise of the program. Many students commented that overal they, enjoy the SAGES program, the small size and structure of its class, the professors, and the overall interesting topics.
Criticism of the program was also raised during the forum. The process students have to use for selecting seminars was extensively discussed. Also, the mandatory nature of the program, as well as concern regarding writing skills among different students placed in the same class, as well as placing students in sections to deliberately create 'diverse' learning environments were discussed extensively.
MediaVision recorded the forum, which should be available on USG's website soon.
Rupe commented that he was happy with the discussion in the forum. "I think it went very well; I think the comments and concerns the students brought up were relevant and will be helpful to Dean Amon and Dr. Whiting in preparing for the upcoming semester," said Rupe. "I was very pleased with the number of students here, too. About 75 percent of them were not USG members, 75 percent were first year students, which is good."
The next forum will be held on Nov. 14 in Thwing regarding issues of student life on the Case campus.
